She hired an executive from EMILY’s List for her communications team.

Former Sec­ret­ary of State Hil­lary Clin­ton (D) “be­lieves that she can turn” real es­tate mogul Don­ald Trump’s (R) “deeply per­son­al as­saults to her be­ne­fit, they say, par­tic­u­larly among sub­urb­an wo­men who could be cru­cial to her hopes in the fall. Her plan is nev­er to en­gage in any back-and-forth over the scan­dals. In­stead, she’ll merely cast him as a bully and talk about policy.”

Clin­ton: “I don’t care what he says about me, but I do re­sent what he says about oth­er people, oth­er suc­cess­ful wo­men, who have worked hard, who have done their part,” (AP)

ON BOARD. “Jess McIn­tosh, vice pres­id­ent of com­mu­nic­a­tions for EMILY’s List, is set to join the cam­paign at the end of May in a newly cre­ated po­s­i­tion, dir­ect­or of com­mu­nic­a­tions out­reach.” She will be based in New York and re­port to Clin­ton’s cam­paign com­mu­nic­a­tions dir­ect­or Jen­nifer Palmieri. “The hire from EMILY’s List is an­oth­er sig­nal of the big role that gender is ex­pec­ted to play in the gen­er­al elec­tion.” (Politico)

THE OTH­ER CHAL­LENGER. Clin­ton said Sunday that Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) “‘has every right to fin­ish off his cam­paign however he chooses.’ But she says she wants to fo­cus on … Trump be­cause his is not ‘a nor­mal can­did­acy.’” She did say she would be will­ing to talk with Sanders and “take in­to ac­count” his plat­form sug­ges­tions. (AP)

VEEPSTAKES. In the year of the out­sider, Clin­ton “says she’s look­ing bey­ond just politi­cians as she be­gins her search for a po­ten­tial run­ning mate” and that per­son may be a busi­nessper­son, but not one like Trump.

Clin­ton: “I think that is the best way to find some­body who can really cap­ture what’s needed in the coun­try, and busi­nesspeople have, es­pe­cially suc­cess­ful busi­nesspeople who are really suc­cess­ful as op­posed to pre­tend suc­cess­ful, I think have a lot to of­fer.” (ABC News)

NO. 1 SUR­ROG­ATE. Former Pres­id­ent Bill Clin­ton is on the trail, but not in the lime­light.” Clin­ton “who flick­ers oc­ca­sion­ally on cable news chan­nels re­mains a big draw on the off-Broad­way cir­cuit of pres­id­en­tial polit­ics. It is a low-alti­tude tac­tic­al de­ploy­ment that leaves a light foot­print, aim­ing to max­im­ize his value as a polit­ic­al as­set without stir­ring the neg­at­ives that also trail him.”

“Clin­ton has not sat for a form­al me­dia in­ter­view since last fall. But he pops up in ob­scure and un­likely places, where the pres­ence of the former pres­id­ent is cer­tain to dom­in­ate loc­al front pages and even­ing news­casts and gen­er­ate buzz in the com­munity.” (Wash­ing­ton Post)

The Fed has raised rates another quarter point, to a target rate of 1.25 percent to 1.5 percent. Two members dissented in favor of keeping rates stable. As of this moment, they expect to make three more quarter-point hikes in 2018, and two in 2019. This meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee was Janet Yellen's last as chair.

At a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee today, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said "there's nothing inappropriate about FBI officials on special counsel Robert Mueller's team holding political opinions so long as it doesn't affect their work." Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) said recently disclosed texts among former members of Mueller's team, "which were turned over to the panel Tuesday night by the Justice Department, revealed 'extreme bias.'"